Ontario Hansard - 22-February2005

Ms. Laurie Scott (Haliburton-Victoria-Brock): I rise today to draw the attention of this House to concerns I have with changes that could be taking place in the organization of Ontario's Breakfast for Learning program and a delay in the transfer of funds needed to feed children. People working on the front lines are concerned that the government is rushing through the reorganization of the Breakfast for Learning programs. Your efforts to centralize the administration will hurt local programs. It will put children at risk.

Smaller communities frequently lose their voices when service delivery is taken away from locally driven organizations. In my riding of Haliburton-Victoria-Brock, the Train the Brain -- Include the Food program has grown from 50 children to one that now serves 5,634 breakfasts and 4,790 snacks weekly. They are succeeding because they are able to tailor their programs to local needs. They raise money locally to help deliver their programs. A centralized service delivery model will not be able to obtain this important source of funds, and children will go hungry.

The ministry page "Results for Ontario Families" brags that the government has "announced plans to improve school breakfast programs by $4 million, helping children arrive in class ready to learn." It is one thing to announce money; it's another thing entirely to actually spend the money. It's time to spend the money that you have announced, so that children don't go hungry.